Rudely awoken from a vivid dream I can't quite recall - but which might have included some steel driveshafts - the journey to the final round of the EOS began.

The final round was being held in the home nation of EOS founder uwe rheinard, in Dortmund Germany.
The track was being constructed in a hall at the 'inter modellbau', which is apparently a big model show. Good for some photos then.

I'd travelled down the previous night to DC's - a journey about as long as a lunar mission, or that's how it felt after a hard days work. We partook in a few episodes of a youtube-type clip show called 'ridiculousness' or something - which did give me a sense of longing for a tv at our house.

We must be MAD setting off at this time

25 minutes after waking we were speeding through the Kent countryside to Folkestone - and the sun was still AWOL. We got to the euro tunnel checking in with 2 minutes to spare before sitting for half an hour on the train at the platform.

Down the chunnel - isn't it pretty - like a prison.

Queue for the Chunnel

Yeah he's doing 90mph and reading a magazine - Oh and looking at me.

We arrived at 8am local time in France, and began the long drive to Dortmund of around 275 miles. After a long journey we finally arrived at the hotel in Dortmund - very close to the 'inter modellbau'. After getting our room sorted we headed off to see the race venue.

We stopped at one of Belgiums finest service stations. Whilst there we met some of the locals.....

?

Me and my dad, good ole Ronnie.

Upon arriving at the venue we attempted to use the parking ticket that the organisers had sent us - which diidn't work as it was only for the Friday! - so we had to pay 6 euros to park. Well at least we had the entry tickets to get into the venue - but apparently these were only for the Friday also and we had to pay 11 euros each to get in!

We had to pay up 22 euros just to get to the track!

I don't know what was going on here.

Instant thought is - I don't want to pay 11 euros to see this madness. Oh god what a waste of money.

The inter modellbau looked a little small at first - not the huge expanse of model-madness that we'd been told. This most certainly wasn't the case however and we soon discovered hall after hall after hall of utter madness.

Things started slow - yeah more shops with servos and wires. Oh hum.

Things started slow - with a demo of some glue which would happily sit for 20 minutes without setting until you joined it and effectively removed the air. Or something like that. This consisted of a nice man showing us some of the things he's glued together and proceeding to glue more things for us.

DC and glue-man did a couple of tug-of-war battles with glued stuff to test it and all three of us were highly interested in purchasing the little bottle of magic glue. When we found out it started around 25 euros we were a bit less excited about it.

Look unt mein rubber unt glue........... das ist gut JA

Yeah he really glued a nut to a pig.

DC and glueman go toe-to-toe - an end glued rubber length was more than a match for this pair of muppets.

Gosh there was so much more fun to be had - and we had it all - keep reading!

It got better than this........ but not much

Downtown Dortmund was a real party town

Extra screen plugins!

.............LOL


Nathan Ralls wins a DIRT WARRIOR

 

DICKIE Tamiya Europe have a stand promoting their stuff and have a small track setup in a different hall, adjacent to the race hall. They're running timed races - where anyone can go and drive the basic Tamiya buggy around a track for 2 laps and the fastest time wins a DIRT WARRIOR. DIRT WARRIOR! - you have to try with a name like that.

Little track - fast laps - crap car with zero steering.

We rocked up to the stand with intentions of dominating - sadly I didn't win but Nathan Ralls took the big prize. It was sad for myself and Dave Church to be beaten by someone who doesn't even race with a steerwheel transmitter :(

I get prepared to battle the track - I was crap.

Sad times.

 
 

There was a stand where this guy was just operating his digger all day - from his authentic digger chair!

A couple of old lads face off over some jules verne type stuff.

After a while looking at thing we decided to go look at the racing again. The 'LRP cup' was taking place - sort of. In fact we were told it had been cancelled as only 14 drivers turned up - someone else said something quite different so were not sure who to believe. Either way there were a small group of EOS racers taking part in the LRP cup without

So we turned up and there were lots of EOS drivers effectively practicing all day before practice even started!

Friday 20th April 2012 - Practice day
The first day of the EOS race kicked off on Friday 20th April with practice day. The doors were supposed to open at 8am - and no matter how many racers piled their equipment outside the hall there were no early entries and the doors really did open at 8am sharp.

Pitting is split as there's not a space big enough for everyone together - so most of the early guys (read as well known drivers for the most part) took spaces in the smaller but open topped area across a busy public area. The other pitting area was behind the track and with low ceilings it was a bit warm and sweaty - we chose the other!

The pits had mood lighting early in the morning

Scotty Ernst arrived early to wake people up

Practice was supposed to start at 8:30am but a surprise 15 minutes of open practice suddenly kicked off without notice.

The track - before the real madness had kicked off.

Like the previous round of the EOS we covered - the racing is split between 2WD buggies & SC in the morning, and 4WD buggies & SC in the afternoon. So practice started with heat one of 2WD buggy at 8:30.

Each driver will get 5 rounds of practice to get their car dialled to the track - and the fastest three consequtive laps of rounds 4 and 5 would give the drivers their heat seeding for qualifying.


GLUE!

 

Lee Martin broke the front of his vega car off during practice round two - luckily DC had brought his spare over from England and handed it over during drivers briefing so the Tamiya superstar could rebuild in time for the continuation of practice.

oops

Lee gets a demo of lots of things getting glued - pigs!

We took a look at the new chassis and it too had a tiny crack across - so, remembering the awesome glue demo yesterday, we convinced Lee to take the chassis over to get it strengthened with the megaglue! Glueman used the special filler powder to build up a nice bead on the inside of the chassis - and used activator and just the glue to fill the hairline crack on the lower side. It certainly looked pretty impressive and Lee was a happy man - even buying some glue for himself!

 

reinforcing in action!

Lee was a happy man

 
 

The track at Dortmund was laid out for the on road classes which raced on Wednesday and we weren't sure quite what the off road drivers would be greeted with, as there would be some jumps added later for the LRP and EOS races. Maybe they would be good, maybe really bad?

Team Durango's Gerd Strenge was tasked with creating the jumps and he did a fantastic job. Gerd brought all the pre-cut shapes with him and spent a long time assembling them over the top of the touring car track on Wednesday night. The hardest obstacle for the racers seems to be the large single jump to tabletop in the centre of the track - the best way seems to be to jump to the tabletop and drive off the other side but some of the lesser talent find it easy to approach at the wrong angle and go off either side. To jump onto the tabletop you need to come out of the slippery corner and get lined up for the tabletop as soon as possible so you've got time to get up to speed - it's tricky, but the crowd relish every crash.

The racers assemble for some briefing

Organisers in action!


All ages were watching

I think these guys might be laughing at Rheinard's misfortune! (upskirt)

Dustin Evans slapped some faces on the track and was the quickest over 3 laps in round four - the first that would count toward the qualifying heat seeding. Jorn was just 0.3 of a second behind.

Practice round 4 - fastest 3 consecutive laps - top 10

 
 

pos

 

name

result

1

Evans Dustin

1:00.359

2

Neumann Jörn

1:00.653

3

Truhe Mike

1:01.374

4

Hönigl Hupo

1:01.392

5

Truman Tony

1:02.571

6

Cockerill Tom

1:02.823

7

Speith Oliver

1:02.829

8

Levin Oskar

1:03.070

9

Krapp Christopher

1:03.643

10

Thielke Brent

1:04.241

   
   

Jorn Neumann stuck in a quick few final laps as round 5 came to an end - Dustin Evans improved his time but only by one thousandth of a second - not enough to keep hold of the #1 position. I guess you can consider this like qualifying for, erm, qualifying. THIS IS SERIOUS BUSINESS!

Overall Practice - fastest 3 consecutive laps - top 10

 
 

pos

 

name

result

from round

1

Neumann Jörn

1:00.024

5

2

Dustin Evans

1:00.358

5

3

Darren Bloomfield

1:01.187

5

4

Marc Rheinard

1:01.350

5

5

Mike Truhe

1:01.374

4

6

Hupo Honigl

1:01.392

4

7

Tom Cockerill

1:02.319

5

8

Lee Martin

1:02.371

5

9

Oskar Levin

1:02.494

5

10

Tony Truman

1:02.571

4

   
   

With the 2WD buggy and Short Course done for the day there was absolutely no break and straight into the first heat of 4WD buggy and Short Course.

Everyone was well into the 4WD buggies! fast!

giggle


Carsten Reuter entered both classes at this event to get the most from his weekend - but with only a 2WD Losi 22 buggy. When time came to book in, he was told that he couldn't race in the 4WD class because his buggy was 2WD and that someone had complained at a previous round of the series about such a thing. It's madness, but the rules are the rules and Carsten was resigned to his fate.

To soak up some spare time and drown his sorrows, Carsten took a break and looked around the toy fair - spotting the Tamiya 'Win a Dirt Warrior' competition, he gave it a go - AND WON! In a happy turn of events Carsten was able to get back into 4WD and will be ready with the buggy for the start of qualifying. Good times.

Paul Bradby

Marc Rheinard works on his 511

Tony Truman

White Sanwa MT4 - cool

one-piece military romping suit - cute! xox

Big model steam train - this was wow.

Jorn took the 4WD buggy quickest time in the penultimate round of practice and it wasn't surpassed in the final round.

Overall Practice - fastest 3 consecutive laps - top 10

 
 

pos

 

name

result

from round

1

Neumann Jörn

0:58.598

4

2

Hönigl Hupo

0:59.345

5

3

Rheinard Marc

0:59.529

4

4

Bloomfield Darren

1:00.183

4

5

Martin Lee

1:00.190

5

6

Bradby Paul

1:00.364

5

7

Prümper Yannic

1:00.511

5

8

Truhe Mike

1:00.632

5

9

Krapp Christopher

1:00.689

4

10

Orlowski Michal

1:00.694

4

   
   

Team Durango have sewn up practice and start first in the top heat of every class - with Jörn Neumann proving to be the fastest driver today in 2WD buggy, 4WD buggy and 4WD short course truck. Durango designer Gerd Strenge was quickest in 2WD sc with his DESC210R prototype truck.

But hey - it's just practice and means nothing at all.


Torsten - SLIM B4

 

Torsten Schmidt and Andreas Hanisch were both racing custom 2WD buggies created by Torsten. Narrowed down B4's are the order of the day here - with the whole sidepods removed and the now much weakened chassis has been extensively reinforced with carbon fibre and epoxy.

The bodyshell is a coke bottle reshaped - cola light of course.


 

 

 

 

 

 
 

After the racing was done for the day we retired to our B&B hotel and were joined by some Swedish racers for an evening of polite chat and car setup discussion.

After much car talk we all retired for the evening early so we'd be fresh for the morning - and the start of qualifying.

Saturday 21st April 2012 - Qualifying day
Rain meant the drivers didn't have to sit outside the venue to await the 8am opening of the hall today - so when we arrived at 7:45am we were already late. 20 minutes of open practice concluded at around 8:15am so there could be a little track work before the start of qualifying at 8:30am.

There were even more people today watching the racing.

Joern Neumann was storming the opening qualifier but in the closing seconds a collision with Mike Truhe put him onto the pipe and a frantic few seconds of throttle jamming to try and get back on the track. Darren Bloomfield took over the lead and held it to the line to take the opening round almost a full second up on Joern.

Darren told us his car was great and he could drive like that all day - but is still looking for fractions of a second. Darren is changing his front pistons and adding more weight to the rear and under the lipo to try and settle the car on landings and get the car turned in sooner in the corners.

Scrutineering did this to Dave's car to protect the track

Bloomfield


2WD buggy qualifying - round one - top 10

 
 

pos

 

name

time

1

Bloomfield Darren

15 5:09.191 (0) 

2

Neumann Jörn

15 5:10.000 (1) 

3

Evans Dustin

15 5:10.404 (2) 

4

Martin Lee

15 5:13.002 (3) 

5

Rheinard Marc

15 5:14.496 (4) 

6

Hönigl Hupo

15 5:17.114 (5) 

7

Bradby Paul

15 5:17.436 (6) 

8

Thielke Brent

14 5:00.889 (7) 

9

Truhe Mike

14 5:03.829 (8) 

10

Ausfelt Otto

14 5:06.665 (9) 

   
   

Dustin Evans's's's's's's Losi 22

Jorn lead early in the top heat of round two as he followed Bloomfield around. A small mistake however allowed Dustin Evans past on the track and Jorn sat behind not wanting to press too hard and take them both out of the fight. Bloomfield kept out front but dropped down to second on time as Dustin now took up the lead which he held to the finish. Darren finished second and Jorn just behind in third.

2WD buggy qualifying - round two - top 10

 
 

pos

 

name

time

1

Dustin Evans

15 5:05.860

2

Darren Bloomfield

15 5:07.306

3

Neumann Jörn

15 5:07.783

4

Martin Lee

15 5:08.330

5

Mike Truhe

15 5:10.656

6

Paul Bradby

15 5:12.747

7

Hupo Honigl

15 5:14.306

8

Tom Cockerill

15 5:14.949

9

Thielke Brent

15 519.094

10

Tony Truman

15 5:20.707

   
   

Round three and Rheinard brought out the big guns - taking the TQ with the second fastest time of the day, less than half a second ahead of Bloomfield and Hupo Hoenigl. Marc was running Lee Martin's spare car - and having broken his first car in practice, Lee wasn't quite on the dominant pace he ususally is and broke in this run taking away his chances of coming back for a TQ.

Right: Mark poses with his VEGA 201

Darren Bloomfield was on top of the qualifying after three rounds but Dustin Evans, Joern Neumann and Marc Rheinard could still take it away.

 


2WD buggy qualifying - round three - top 10

 
 

pos

 

name

time

1

Marc Rheinard

15 5:06.523

2

Darren Bloomfield

15 5:06.835

3

Hupo Hoenigl

15 5:09.202

4

Joern Neumann

15 5:10.218

5

Mike Truhe

15 5:11.757

6

Oskar Levin

15 5:12.307

7

Dustin Evans

15 5:14.757

8

Paul Bradby

15 5:15.913

9

Oliver Speith

15 5:17.523

10

Tony Truman

15 5:17.562

   
   

Brent Thielke from AE was trying some different setups on the new Team Associated big bore dampers. Right now the team don't have their own springs ready so Brent is using Losi springs - but of coruse, they'll have their own available when the shocks are released.

Fat! Metal top caps.

 

We got a moment to go through a lap of the track with Oskar Levin - the top ranked Swedish racer here at the EOS.

From the start I jump #1 as a double - the landing into the slippery corner at #2 is easy to spin out but hopefully I powerslide out. I give it full throttle when on the carpet and approach the step-up tabletop at #3 - where I jump onto the top of the table and launch off the back side.

If you go too hard you can traction roll here as you need to slow down and prepare for the corner before the double-single jump at #4. I jump the first double with a little 'bubba whip' to get some style into my lap and then roll the single to prepare for the next corners.

The corner table on #5 - here I jump from the up slop across to downside but take it easy - too fast and the car will land on just two wheels and could easily traction roll as you straighten up for the back straight.

I take the back straight at full throttle, I don't let off the throttle until maybe 6-7m before the apex, then start to steer which slows the car enough for the corner without me touching the brakes.

The two double-jumps at #7 - I take the first as single single, it's only possible to try to double this if you go wide or are a maniac! The next double is taken easily as one.

#8 is another double - I take this somewhere between middle or the inside to line up and hit the next apex at #9 and go diagonal over this single jump, getting only small airtime. I brake at this corner before driving round to start another lap.

 

Jorn Neumann pulled out something special in the final round - no, not like that - he performed some racing magic and stormed round to take the win. Jorn said he made no changes and did nothing different, only drive consistently. Mistakes from Bloomfield eventually saw him pull his car off the track in frustration and Dustin Evans made several mistakes on his way to 4th in round.

 

Lee Martin took his best round score but couldn't quite match his team mate Marc - maybe the chassis change was psyching him out?

2WD buggy qualifying - round four - top 10

 
 

pos

 

name

time

1

Joern Neumann

15 5:00.065

2

Marc Rheinard

15 5:05.910

3

Lee Martin

15 5:08.614

4

Dustin Evans

15 5:11.816

5

Paul Bradby

15 5:13.466

6

Oliver Speith

15 5:14.516

7

Tom Cockerill

15 5:17.505

8

Mike Truhe

15 5:17.729

9

Oskar Levin

15 5:17.742

10

Yannic Prumper

14 5:00.932

   
   

Jörn, Marc and Darren all ended on 1 point - having all won a round and finished second. The fastest winning time decided the split so it was the stunning last run from Hupo which gave him the overall top qualifying spot and pole on e grid for the final.

2WD buggy qualifying - overall top 10

 
 

pos

name

point

rd1

rd2

rd3

rd4

Neumann Jörn

1

15 5:10.000 (1) 

15 5:07.783 (2) 

15 5:10.218 (3) 

15 5:00.065 (0) 

Rheinard Marc

1

15 5:14.496 (4) 

5 1:43.640 (93) 

15 5:06.523 (0) 

15 5:05.910 (1) 

Bloomfield Darren

1

15 5:09.191 (0) 

15 5:07.306 (1) 

15 5:06.835 (1) 

8 2:50.185 (90) 

Evans Dustin

2

15 5:10.404 (2) 

15 5:05.860 (0) 

15 5:14.757 (6) 

15 5:11.816 (3) 

Martin Lee

5

15 5:13.002 (3) 

15 5:08.330 (3) 

12 4:06.754 (59) 

15 5:08.614 (2) 

Hönigl Hupo

7

15 5:17.114 (5) 

15 5:14.306 (6) 

15 5:09.202 (2) 

14 5:04.252 (11) 

Truhe Mike

8

14 5:03.829 (8) 

15 5:10.656 (4) 

15 5:11.757 (4) 

15 5:17.729 (7) 

Bradby Paul

9

15 5:17.436 (6) 

15 5:12.747 (5) 

15 5:15.913 (7) 

15 5:13.466 (4) 

Levin Oskar

13

13 5:03.384 (26) 

14 5:02.963 (13) 

15 5:12.307 (5) 

15 5:17.742 (8) 

10 

Speith Oliver

13

6 2:15.413 (86) 

14 5:04.105 (15) 

15 5:17.523 (8) 

15 5:14.516 (5) 

   
   

 

Joern Neumann put in the first 16 lap run of the meeting in round one of 4WD. Despite the fact the 4WD buggies should have an advantage, there's really not much difference in times and some drivers were actually slower - but being only the first round things might get quicker for the 4WDrivers.

Darren Bloomfield was piloting the Losi XXX4G+ buggy like he had done in the previous indoor races - unlike the previous weekend at the opening round of the BRCA national series where Darren used the older XX4 chassis.

Lee Martin had slipper problems which were getting progressively worse during the run - and obviously slowing him down by the end.

4WD buggy qualifying - round one - top 10

 
 

pos

 

name

time

1

Neumann Jörn

16 5:16.961 (0) 

2

Bloomfield Darren

15 5:03.286 (1) 

3

Hönigl Hupo

15 5:05.374 (2) 

4

Truhe Mike

15 5:08.186 (3) 

5

Cockerill Tom

15 5:08.947 (4) 

6

Rheinard Marc

15 5:12.007 (5) 

7

Prümper Yannic

15 5:13.052 (6) 

8

Martin Lee

15 5:15.065 (7) 

9

Truman Tony

15 5:16.217 (8) 

10

Krapp Christopher

15 5:16.504 (9) 

   
   

Joern again took the only 16 lapper in the round - taking the second round of qualifying in a new fastest time. Team Durango team-mate Hupo came in second for a Durango 1-2 and Mike Truhe third.

4WD buggy qualifying - round two - top 10

 
 

pos

 

name

time

1

Neumann Jörn

16 5:11.055

2

Hönigl Hupo

15 5:02.237

3

Mike Truhe

15 5:04.002

4

Prümper Yannic

15 5:04.553

5

Lee Martin

15 5:05.685

6

Tom Cockerill

15 5:07.048

7

Tony Truman

15 5:09.318

8

Marc Rheinard

15 5:10.178

9

Nathan Ralls

15 5:10.947

10

Brent Thielke

15 5:11.510

   
   

Joern took the win again in round three, earning the super oople bonus 'yawn' award for making it dull at the top because of his supreme driving skills.

Yannic Prumper had been climbing up the ladder all day in 4WD and this time was the only other driver than Joern to make it through for the 16th lap.

Jörn had an error but still took the win

 

4WD buggy qualifying - round three - top 10

 
 

pos

 

name

time

1

Neumann Jörn

16 5:

2

Yannic Prumper

16 5:

3

Marc Rheinard

15 5:

4

Lee Martin

15 5:

5

Darren Bloomfield

15 5:

6

Dustin Evans

15 5:

7

Brent Thielke

15 5:

8

Hupo Hoenigl

15 5:

9

Tom Cockerill

15 5:

10

Paul Bradby

15 5:

   
   

Daniel Kobbevik - Youngest driver at EOS

 

The youngest driver at the EOS is Daniel Kobbevik from Norway, at just 7 years old!

Daniel is NOT messing about on the track however and placed 70th overall in 2wd qualiying, and 45th in 4WD - outqualifying some good racers with many more years experience than Daniel has been seen birthdays!

Daniel is running the Associated cars. Daniel broke the topdeck on his 4WD B44.1 buggy and would have had to stop racing if Team Associated / CML driver Paul Bradby hadn't stepped forward to offer his own parts so Daniel could continue, a great gesture from the AE driver.


 

Daniel with his dad Magne who also races

 

 
 

A few crashes from Jorn meant he wasn't going to complete a lock-out in 4wd, but since he was already the top qualifier, it didn't matter so much.

Lee Martin was exhausted

Marc takes racing so serious its crazy

Lee Martin was at last on the top and just missed out on 16 laps by the slimmest of margains. Yannic was second again and is sure to be a force in the finals - but you can't rub paint in open wheel racing, so who knows!

4WD buggy qualifying - round four - top 10

 
 

pos

 

name

time

1

Lee Martin

15 5:00.068

2

Yannic Prumper

15 5:02.008

3

Neumann Jörn

15 5:02.888

4

Chris Krapp

15 5:04.428

5

Darren Bloomfield

15 5:05.638

6

Brent Thielke

15 5:05.994

7

Mike Truhe

15 5:06.075

8

Kaja Novotny

15 5:12.837

9

Hupo Honigl

15 5:12.867

10

Oliver Speith

15 5:13.774

   
   

Jörn completed a fine day of qualifying and his red eyes told the story. Admitting it was CRAZY to try race three classes in one day- but he did well enough to tie up all three in fine style. Yannic Prumper was super-impressive and to take second place in qualifying in front of some really great drivers is an amazing result.

4WD buggy qualifying - overall top 10

 
 

pos

name

point

rd1

rd2

rd3

rd4

Neumann Jörn

0

16 5:16.961 (0)  16 5:11.055 (0)  16 5:13.775 (0)  15 5:02.888 (2) 

Prümper Yannic

2

15 5:13.052 (6)  15 5:04.553 (3)  16 5:19.459 (1)  15 5:02.008 (1) 

Martin Lee

3

15 5:15.065 (7)  15 5:05.685 (4)  15 5:00.791 (3)  15 5:00.068 (0) 

Hönigl Hupo

3

15 5:05.374 (2)  15 5:02.237 (1)  15 5:05.227 (7)  15 5:12.867 (8) 

Bloomfield Darren

5

15 5:03.286 (1)  15 5:12.522 (10)  15 5:02.112 (4)  15 5:05.638 (4) 

Truhe Mike

5

15 5:08.186 (3)  15 5:04.002 (2)  14 5:06.200 (28)  15 5:06.075 (6) 

Rheinard Marc

7

15 5:12.007 (5)  15 5:10.178 (7)  15 5:00.604 (2)  14 5:02.971 (19) 

Cockerill Tom

9

15 5:08.947 (4)  15 5:07.048 (5)  15 5:05.424 (8)  1 0:20.205 (55) 

Thielke Brent

11

15 5:23.363 (13)  15 5:11.510 (9)  15 5:05.111 (6)  15 5:05.994 (5) 

10 

Krapp Christopher

12

15 5:16.504 (9)  13 4:28.519 (33)  15 5:08.508 (10)  15 5:04.428 (3) 
   
   

 

Yannic Prümper

 

Yannic Prümper is a touring car wizard - apparently. I am sorry to say I do not follow the touring car scene and so was very surprised to see a new face so fast.

Yannic has been racing for 6 years and is only 18 right now. He started with touring cars and never races 10th off road.

He's a Yokomo driver and so is using the Bmax and new 2WD Bmax from Yokomo with rear motor. The 2WD isn't so competitive at this track against many mid-motor designs - and Yannic admits that he's more suited to 4WD buggies because it's closer to touring car.

Yannic enjoys the buggy racing a lot he said - easier than the touring cars and the setup isn't such a big factor in the racing.


 

 

 

 

 

 

Gosh, that's very green

 
 

The crazy schedule of racing meant I watched about 5 seconds of short course - so, I'm sorry!

4WD short course truck qualifying - overall top 10

 
 

pos

name

point

rd1

rd2

rd3

rd4

Neumann Jörn

0

15 5:12.295 (0)  15 5:11.379 (0)  15 5:09.124 (0)  15 5:08.573 (0) 

Hönigl Hupo

2

15 5:18.554 (1)  15 5:16.869 (1)  14 5:04.724 (2)  15 5:19.470 (1) 

Prümper Björn

3

14 5:02.745 (2)  14 5:02.941 (3)  15 5:17.065 (1)  14 5:02.759 (2) 

Evans Dustin

6

14 5:14.389 (4)  14 5:02.933 (2)  14 5:12.229 (4)  14 5:15.685 (5) 

Truhe Mike

6

14 5:12.243 (3)  14 5:13.548 (4)  14 5:11.156 (3)  14 5:12.175 (4) 

Malyshko Dmitry

8

13 5:00.039 (5)  14 5:17.862 (5)  14 5:21.638 (5)  14 5:10.164 (3) 

Novotny Kája

12

13 5:05.571 (6)  13 5:11.319 (6)  13 5:04.845 (6)  13 5:02.338 (6) 

Johansen Marius

14

13 5:11.773 (7)  11 5:08.079 (13)  13 5:17.058 (9)  13 5:11.432 (7) 

Evens Nicolas

14

12 5:11.258 (11)  13 5:17.542 (7)  13 5:12.705 (7)  13 5:25.217 (10) 

10 

Vinge Tommy

16

12 5:08.581 (10)  13 5:23.289 (8)  13 5:15.040 (8)  13 5:21.297 (9) 
   
   

Oskar Levin conducted a 5 minute funny interview with the UK's David Church - at at the end realised he only took a 5 minute photo.

 

Sunday 22nd April 2012 - Finals day
Finals day kicked off and this time it was raining AND we were there early - but of course as our luck would dictate, this time there were no early entries. It was certainly not shorts and tshirt weather out there.

A brief open practice session took place for about 15 minutes, as soon as people started pouring into the pitting areas.

The finals started at 8am sharp - with the A final of 2WD short course, followed by the 2WD buggy finals.

Gert Strenge was in pole position for the opening leg of the 2WD SC A-final, but a mistake allowed Ebi Beck through for the lead. Gerd drove hard to try and regain the lead but made another mistake and Ebi pulled away for the win.

REVOLUTION DESIGN RACING PRODUCTS

 

Michael Vollmer from Revolution Design Racing Products was racing at this round of the EOS with his DEX210 buggy. Michael did design on the DEX210 when he worked at Team Durango and now is making lots of hop up parts along with his range of tools and other products.

We photographed some of the tools the previous weekend, at the opening round of the BRCA national series - but this is the first time we've seen the option parts from RD.

Michael says these parts are all prototype so some final finishing details like anodising isn't quite final spec - but the design of these products is done. There's loads coming but RD will start releasing products slowly at first.


Some of the many parts coming out

Brass suspension hangers for the DEX210

Important piece of bling!

Alloy ackermann plate has one extra hole

Alloy shock collars for the Durango big bores

DEX210 thumb screws

Brass motor weights!

Alloy and carbon DEX210 battery straps

Alloy (front) and TiNitride coated steel pinions are coming - both seperately and as complete sets!

Rear 50g weight for the DEX210 in mid-motor

 

 
 


During the brief morning practice - Dustin Evans tried the gear differential in his 22 for the first time - maybe to try and mimic the success that Jorn was already having with his Team Durango and gear differential. Dustin came off the track really happy with the gear differential - saying it gave more drive around the corners where the ball differential felt unsettled the gear diff was glued to the track. The only down side was the wooden/polished corner at the lower right of the track after the double - where the car felt worse and you could no longer use the brakes.

Truhe was straight on it and both drivers will use the gear differential for the first leg of the A final.

What? A gear diff?

Truhe changes the oil in his gear diff

 

The first leg was lead off by pole man Jorn Neumann with the Team Durango car. Jorn made a mistake over the second double only a few seconds into the race. Jorn rolled over and back onto his wheels - rejoining the race in 3rd position as Marc Rheinard now lead the race with Bloomfield second.

 

Jorn crashes and loses the lead

 

After a fierce first lap Jorn made a move - taking the first double in the top left of the track in a single and jumping past Bloomfield for second position. Bloomfield tried to put in a move of his own to regain the position a couple of corners later but it didn't work and he ended up pointing out of the corner and losing vital seconds. Dustin Evans was now up to third and his newly gear-diff equipped car was looking good.

Amazing these guys didnt crash

Jorn goes to over-jump Darren

Darren tried to come back but lost positions.

Jorn goes for another over-jump for the lead on Marc

Dustin and Jorn battled for a couple of laps as they reeled in Marc up front. It was now a three-way battle for the lead. Jorn looked for any way past - and tried the same move he'd successfully used on Bloomfield a couple of laps previous - taking the first double as a single. This time however it didn't work and he hit the back of Marc's car.

Jorn hits the back of Marc's car - but no foul

Jorn was along side but slowed early to avoid a crash

Jorn got a good momentum down the corner tabletop onto the straight and managed to pull alongside on the inside line - but pulled up early to prevent a crash and Marc was still leading.

Jorn kept looking for a way past but made an error over the tabletop - putting a wheel off the side and getting pulled off onto the hay bales which caused a big crash and Dustin was through for second.

 

Jorn goes off the side of the tabletop

Lee Martin closed in on the leaders

Jorn tried to go on the inside of Dustin but the pair collided and Dustin ended up on his roof - Jorn stopped and waited but as soon as Dustin was underway he crashed. Things were getting desperate for the drivers now - only Marc out front seemed steady as many drivers started to make mistakes as they pushed past their limits on the unforgiving track.

Marc Rheinard took his 'ready to run' car to the win.

Marc Rheinard "Darren Bloomfield is the best"....... "marshall".... HA!

2WD A Final Leg One

 
 

pos

qual

name

laps

time

1

2

Rheinard Marc

15

5:03.465

2

4

Evans Dustin

15

5:06.133

3

3

Bloomfield Darren

15

5:08.398

4

1

Neumann Jörn

15

5:08.697

5

5

Martin Lee

15

5:10.540

6

6

Hönigl Hupo

15

5:13.459

7

10

Speith Oliver

15

5:14.355

8

8

Bradby Paul

15

5:17.012

9

7

Truhe Mike

15

5:19.244

10

9

Levin Oskar

15

5:21.245

   
   

 

 

Marc Rheinard - multiple world champion in touring cars, hasn't had chance to race buggies since the European Championships 7 months ago. He turned up to race Lee Martin's spare VEGA Tamiya 201, with Lee's electrics and bodyshell - like a 'ready to run' car.

Marc used the same tyres on his car since practice and said it was a little hard work to keep in front of the guys in A final leg one as he needed more steering. Marc cut some new tyres the same as most drivers - with both inside and outside rows completely off, and the rest of the nanobyte spikes cut to half height.

I am a winner in the game of LIFE

Marc's front tyres were starting to lose grip

Marc is using Lee Martin's complete VEGA 201 - Ready To Run

Marc ran these tyres from Friday practice all the way!

New front nanobyte tyres - cut down.

 

The second leg of the A final had a nice clean start - no drama for the first couple of laps but on lap three Dustin Evans crashed on the tabletop which drew the crowds attention just as Jorn over-jumped the double-single and rolled. Jorn was quickly marshalled but lost the lead to Marc again.

 

 

Jorn was straight back behind and tried to pass at the end of the straight as he had the inside line - but a touch of wheels saw him almost roll and drop back as Bloomfield closed in on his bumper. Bloomfield and Jorn collided coming around the slippery corner and Bloomfield waited for Jorn, to the applause of the crowd who appreciated the sportsmanship.

 

 

Jorn was now on a mission and really looking fast - closing the gap to Marc quickly he touched the back of Marc's car at the end of the straight and almost crashed out but recovered the car just before Dustin Evans could pass.

 

 

 

 

Jorn was still absolutely on fire and putting in the fastest lap of the final he quickly pulled back up to Marc and pushed him around the track. Marc went too tight on the corner table and his car got a little out of shape. Jorn landed and started to pull alongside but Marc was still correcting his line and the pair came together. They both ended up sideways on the main straight.

 

 

 

Jorn managed to keep going as Dustin came onto the straight. Things didn't change for the leaders and Jorn held his lead to the line for the win in leg two.

2WD A Final Leg Two

 
 

pos

qual

name

laps

time

1

1

Neumann Jörn

16

5:18.538

2

4

Evans Dustin

16

5:19.570

3

2

Rheinard Marc

16

5:20.278

4

6

Hönigl Hupo

15

5:04.772

5

7

Truhe Mike

15

5:06.070

6

5

Martin Lee

15

5:07.160

7

3

Bloomfield Darren

15

5:09.757

8

9

Levin Oskar

15

5:14.795

9

8

Bradby Paul

15

5:16.813

10

10

Speith Oliver

14

5:03.962

   
   

Marc admitted he needed to take Jorn on the first lap to be in with a chance - otherwise Jorn would just be able to drive away and not make a mistake. He wasn't joking either - he was on a mission in the first lap and tried to make a move around the slippery floor but accidentally t-boned Jorn and well known for his fairness on the track, let him go.

 

 

Dustin (3rd) slips off the side and onto the hay bales

Jorn got onto the straight and was never seen again

 

Marc tried to push his VEGA over the double single after the table top but hung a wheel off the side and couldn't get the speed. Marc held close a little longer

2WD A Final Leg Three

 
 

pos

qual

name

laps

time

1

1

Neumann Jörn

16

5:17.415

2

3

Bloomfield Darren

15

5:03.051

3

6

Hönigl Hupo

15

5:05.572

4

10

Speith Oliver

15

5:09.154

5

4

Evans Dustin

15

5:09.576

6

8

Bradby Paul

15

5:12.368

7

5

Martin Lee

15

5:16.935

8

2

Rheinard Marc

15

5:17.860

9

7

Truhe Mike

15

5:19.593

10

9

Levin Oskar

15

5:06.764

   
   

 

2WD A Final Leg Three

 
 

pos

name

rd1

rd2

rd3

pts

1

Neumann Jörn

15 5:08.697 (4) 16 5:18.538 (1) 16 5:17.415 (1)

2

2

Rheinard Marc

15 5:03.465 (1) 16 5:20.278 (3) 15 5:17.860 (8)

4

3

Evans Dustin

15 5:06.133 (2) 16 5:19.570 (2) 15 5:09.576 (5)

4

4

Bloomfield Darren

15 5:08.398 (3) 15 5:09.757 (7) 15 5:03.051 (2)

5

5

Hönigl Hupo

15 5:13.459 (6) 15 5:04.772 (4) 15 5:05.572 (3)

7

6

Speith Oliver

15 5:14.355 (7) 14 5:03.962 (10) 15 5:09.154 (4)

11

7

Martin Lee

15 5:10.540 (5) 15 5:07.160 (6) 15 5:16.935 (7)

11

8

Truhe Mike

15 5:19.244 (9) 15 5:06.070 (5) 15 5:19.593 (9)

14

9

Bradby Paul

15 5:17.012 (8) 15 5:16.813 (9) 15 5:12.368 (6)

14

10

Levin Oskar

15 5:21.245 (10) 15 5:14.795 (8) 14 5:06.764 (10)

18

   
   
 

Jorn quickly started to pull away and all the cars were well spaced out on the track. Yannic in second was getting some pressure from Lee Martin but a mistake saw Lee go tumbling up the corner tabletop and Hupo sailed past as the Marshall jumped over the train of cars to assist.

 

Yannic in second being chased by Lee and Hupo

Lee goes nuts into the wall

Jorn checked out at this point and built up a huge lead as the fight for second place was really kicking off behind.

Yannic gets pressure from Truhe

A mistake cost Yannic as he clipped a track marker

The evidence of an off-track moment - or a good luck charm. Hupo's DEX410v3

Jorn crossed the line a huge 16 seconds ahead of second place Mike Truhe for an easy leg win.

4WD A Final Leg One

 
 

pos

qual

name

laps

time

1

1

Neumann Jörn

16

5:04.255

2

6

Truhe Mike

16

5:20.150

3

7

Rheinard Marc

15

5:01.813

4

5

Bloomfield Darren

15

5:01.873

5

10

Krapp Christopher

15

5:03.957

6

2

Prümper Yannic

15

5:05.150

7

8

Cockerill Tom

15

5:09.335

8

4

Hönigl Hupo

15

5:10.937

9

9

Thielke Brent

15

5:22.296

10

3

Martin Lee

6

2:03.228

   
   

Darren Bloomfield had some issues at the start of leg two - maybe punting his XXX4 into the back of Rheinards car for fun after the end of the previous leg wasn't such a good idea as now the receiver wasn't behaving correctly. It was changed quickly and the leg could begin.

I'd be tempted to put that 'Yawn' graphic back in here - but that joke's been done now, so let's carry on and just say Jorn took the second leg and the overall win with ease. He simply drove away from the rest very rapidly and couldn't be touched.

Darren Bloomfield had some problems

 

Chris Krapp had a crap leg two

Thielke and Truhe

 

4WD A Final Leg Two

 
 

pos

qual

name

laps

time

1

1

Neumann Jörn

16

5:05.760

2

2

Prümper Yannic

16

5:16.619

3

3

Martin Lee

16

5:19.478

4

7

Rheinard Marc

15

5:01.373

5

6

Truhe Mike

15

5:06.996

6

4

Hönigl Hupo

15

5:07.100

7

9

Thielke Brent

15

5:08.439

8

5

Bloomfield Darren

15

5:11.628

9

8

Cockerill Tom

6

2:04.479

10

10

Krapp Christopher

2

0:47.946

   
   
 

Oliver Speith - Kyosho

 

Oliver Speith is a local racer from Dortmund and helped build the track that this round of the EOS is running on. Oliver is just 16 but has already been racing a number of years, having started at just 10 years old. Oliver started racing 1/12th scale pan car 6 years ago and competed at the World Championships in 2010 but has now retired to concentrate on electric off road.

Oliver raced 2WD buggy since he was 11 years old but has never competed at a big buggy race before - and has never raced 4WD buggy until this weekend. Indeed - both his Kyosho cars are new to him and he's racing them for the first time at this meeting. His cars are the Lazer ZX5 FS2 and Kyosho RB5 with the VEGA mid-motor chassis conversion.

Oliver finished 6th overall in 2WD buggy and 13th overall in 4WD - which considering his lack of time with the cars, and 4WD in particular, is a really great performance.

 

Oliver received his Vega conversion 2 weeks ago.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

Yannic Prümper took up the pole position for the final leg as Jorn was sitting out the race since he'd already won everything. Things didn't go well for Yannic as he made a mistake after a couple of corners which dropped him to 3rd before a series of rough moments dropped him all the way back to last place after just half a lap. Ouch.

4WD A Final Leg Three

 
 

pos

qual

name

laps

time

1

4

Hönigl Hupo

16

5:18.645

2

3

Martin Lee

16

5:20.407

3

8

Cockerill Tom

15

5:01.277

4

7

Rheinard Marc

15

5:02.383

5

10

Krapp Christopher

15

5:07.828

6

5

Bloomfield Darren

15

5:12.505

7

2

Prümper Yannic

15

5:14.684

8

6

Truhe Mike

15

5:17.445

9

9

Thielke Brent

14

5:02.824

10

1

Neumann Jörn

0

0:00.000

   
   

Jorn won! - I'll finish it soon, now, I must sleep. Remember, it's just me.